The political class has failed us
The Brexit vote on 23rd June 2016 was a cry of despair from the dispossessed and the wretched. They wanted a new world. The political class has betrayed them. What will happen to that anger? Look at the streets of Paris, warns Peter Bingle.
I cannot remember a more humiliating statement by a prime minister. Her Cabinet colleagues looked as if they had all swallowed wasps and Tory MPs looked sullen and dispirited. And that was before she had even started her statement …
There is something mildly heroic about Theresa May until you remember that a poleaxe is about to finish her off. Then you realise that you mistook stubbornness for heroism and she has created a Brexit crisis almost entirely of her own making. That is why it is now impossible to feel any sorrow or compassion for her plight. Only contempt …
Her many weaknesses were cruelly exposed during the last election campaign. She has no personality, no warmth, no charisma and, most critically, no vision. Her only strength was her doggedness. Like a ageing boxer who keeps being knocked to the canvass, she had the ability to get back up and come back for more. A political version perhaps of Tyson Fury. This is why there was a grudging respect for her amongst the electorate.
Whoever persuaded the PM to postpone the 'meaningful vote' has therefore removed the one thing going for her. It would have been far better to lose the vote and face down a baying House of Commons than postpone it on the pretext of trying to achieve something which Is clearly impossible. Theresa May is no Margaret Thatcher. The comparison is so far fetched as to be almost hilarious if it wasn't so tragic!
Has there ever been a more hopeless House of Commons? Both front-bench teams are lacking competence, vision, energy and a compelling narrative. Luckily for the Tories, Corbyn and the comrades are even more hapless than the government. And yet, it is getting harder and harder to support this most mediocre of governments.
As a Catholic, I believe in miracles but even I don't think it credible that Theresa May will be PM by Easter. She doesn't deserve to be. I suspect that the Number Ten team are on their knees most of the time praying to St Jude, the much loved patron saint of hopeless cases. I feel sorry for the poor man!
So what happens next? Listening to the PM reminds me of Gilbert's great line in Ruddigore : "This particularly rapid unintelligible patter isn't generally heard, and if it is it doesn't matter!" Quite …
The Brexit vote on 23rd June 2016 was a cry of despair from the dispossessed and the wretched. They wanted a new world. The political class has betrayed them. What will happen to that anger? Look at the streets of Paris …
